A checklist of gilled mushrooms (Basidiomycota: Agaricomycetes) with diversity analysis in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India

 

Girish Gogoi 1 & Vipin Parkash 2

 

1,2 Rain Forest Research Institute, A.T. Road, Sotai, Post Box No. 136, Jorhat, Assam 785001, India

1 gogoigirish@rediffmail.com (corresponding author), 2 bhardwajpvn@rediffmail.com

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.1770.7.15.8272-8287

 

Editor: R.K. Verma, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur, India. Date of publication: 26 December 2015 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # o4211 | Received 16 January 2015 | Final received 02 October 2015 | Finally accepted 30 November 2015

 

Citation: Gogoi, G. & V. Parkash (2015). A checklist of gilled mushrooms (Basidiomycota: Agaricomycetes) with diversity analysis in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(15): 8272–8287; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.1770.7.15.8272-8287

 

Copyright: © Gogoi & Parkash 2015. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: This is a PhD work of the first author, Girish Gogoi without taking any financial assistance from any funding agency or organization.

 

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the Forest Department of Assam for permitting them to conduct surveys in the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Jorhat, Assam, and the Director RFRI, Jorhat for consistent inspiration and all support for this work; Mr. Deben Borah, who assisted in the field, Sri Ankur Jyoti Saikia who assisted in the Laboratory and Mrs. Rajkumari Uzzalla Singha who assisted in the photography of agarics.

 

 

 

Abstract: Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary is comprised of five distinct compartments. A total of 138 species of gilled mushrooms belonging to 48 genera, 23 families, five orders of the class Agaricomycetes, division Basidiomycota, have been collected and analyzed. The order Agaricales was found with the highest number of species (113), followed by Russulales (14), Polyporales (5), Cantharellales (4) and Boletales (2). The species Coprinellus disseminatus and Megacollybia rodmani have shown the highest (8.26) and the lowest density (0.05), respectively. A total of 24 species, e.g., Termitomyces albuminosus, Marasmius curreyi, Marasmiellus candidus, Leucocoprinus medioflavus, Mycena leaiana, Hygrocybe miniata, Collybia chrysoropha, Gymnopus confluens were common with frequency percentage of 11.9, whereas Megacollybia rodmani with less frequency percentage (2.4) was found only in few quadrates of the sanctuary. The highly abundant species were Termitomyces medius (91.7) and Coprinellus disseminatus (86.8), and less abundant species were Psilocybe wayanadensis (1.0) and Lepiota sp. (1.0) in the study site. The order of the species richness index (R) compartment wise was 2>3>4>5>1. Both the Shannon diversity index and Simpson diversity index of agarics was maximum (1.88, 0.98) in compartment 2, whereas minimum (1.72, 0.95) in compartment 1 and 5, respectively. Moreover, the compartment 2 was found very much similar with compartment 3 and very less similar with compartment 1.

 

 

Keywords: Agaricomycetes, Agaricales, Boletales, Cantharellales, Polyporales, Russulales.

 

 

 

Mushroom is a general term used for the fruiting body of macrofungi (Ascomycota & Basidiomycota) and represents only a short reproductive stage in their lifecycle (Das 2010). Mushrooms can be epigeous or hypogeous, large enough to be seen with the naked eyes and can be picked by hand (Chang & Miles 1992). The fruiting bodies develop from the underground fungal mycelium. They mostly belong to different groups such as agarics, boletus, jelly fungi, coral fungi, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, puffballs and bird’s nest fungi. They have a fertile surface either on lamellae or lining the tubes, opening out by means of pores. The lamellate members are often called agarics or gilled mushrooms and the tube bearing are called poroid mushrooms.

There are approximately 1.5 million species of fungi found on Earth (Hawksworth 1991, 2001, 2004). According to Sarbhoy et al. (1996) the number of fungi species recorded in India were over 27,000. The number of mushroom species alone, recorded in the world were 41,000 of which approximately 850 species were recorded from India (Deshmukh 2004) mostly belonging to gilled mushrooms. The first fungal list in India was published by Butler & Bisby (1931) and was revised by Vasudeva (1960). Later on many additional lists of Indian fungal species were published (Bilgrami et al. 1979, 1981, 1991). Indian Agaricales were first reviewed by Sathe & Rahalkar (1978) followed by Manjula (1983) who provided a very exhaustive list of Agaricoid and Boletoid fungi from India and Nepal. Sathe & Kulkarni (1987) published a checklist of 44 species of wild edible mushrooms from southwestern India. Natarajan et al. (2005a) published a checklist of Indian agarics and boletes. Moreover, Natarajan et al. (2005b) reported 195 species of agarics from Tamil Nadu and 28 species from Kerala. Brown et al. (2006) reported 163 morphotypes of macrofungi from Kodagu District of Karnataka. Swapna et al. (2008) enumerated 778 species of macrofungi from Shimoga District of Karnataka. Mani & Kumaresan (2009a, 2009b) recorded 18 and 39 macrofungal species from Tamil Nadu; Mohanan (2011) reported 550 species of macrofungi from Kerala. Pushpa & Purushothama (2012) reported 90 species of mushrooms in and around Bangalore (Karnataka). Usha (2012) reported 120 species and Usha & Janardhana (2014) reported 135 species of macrofungi from Western Ghats (Karnataka). Farook et al. (2013) compiled a literature-based checklist of agarics with 616 species occurring in Kerala State. Pradhan et al. (2013) reported 120 species of macrofungi in the lateritic region of West Bengal. Tiwari et al. (2013) reported 191 wood decaying macrofungi from central India. Verma et al. (2008) described forest fungi of central India. Verma (2014) again reported 282 species of basidiomycetes from central India. Recently, a total of 6,950 sporomas were collected and their diversity and distribution were reported from Chikmagalur District of Western Ghats in Karnataka (Krishnappa et al. 2014).

Northeastern India (a part of Indo Burma) is a biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000) of the world, a few number of wild macrofungi have been reported from this part by Gogoi & Parkash (2015a, 2015b, 2014), Khaund & Joshi (2013), Tanti et al. (2011), Boruah et al. (1997), and Sing & Sing (1993). A checklist is very important in order to know the distribution of a particular fungal species in different regions of a country or a state. The present study is an attempt for the first time to prepare a checklist of agaricomycetes along with their diversity analysis occurring in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary (HGWLS), Jorhat, Assam.

 

 

Materials and Methods

 

Study Area

The HGWLS (Fig. 1) lies between 26.40–26.450N latitude and 94.18–94.230E longitude, covering an area of 20.98km2. The average annual rainfall is 249cm (Ghosh 2007) in the sanctuary and is situated at 100–120 m. As per Champion & Seth (1986), the forest type of the area is Assam plain alluvial semi evergreen forest with pockets of wet evergreen forest. The vegetation is typically a wet evergreen forest mixed with bamboos and canes.

Survey, Preservation and Examination

The survey was conducted during April 2012 to September 2014 in HGWLS, Jorhat for collection and diversity analysis of gilled mushrooms as suggested by Largent (1977). The Sanctuary is comprised of five compartments (Fig. 1) (Hazarika & Gupta 2005; Chetia & Kalita 2012; Gogoi & Parkash 2014) and these compartments show some heterogeneity in terms of size, vegetation composition, canopy density, anthropogenic pressure, topography, soil moisture and soil nutrients (Ghosh 2007). Stratified random sampling technique was used to collect data from different compartments of the sanctuary. Each compartment was considered as a stratum and again each stratum was divided into many sub-strata, based on their vegetation composition, soil nutrients, altitude, slope, aspect, termite mound, disturbance gradient (highly disturbed area, mildly disturbed area, and undisturbed) (Krishnappa et al. 2014). A transect has been made in each sub-stratum measuring 50×20 m and a total 42 transects have been studied in the whole sanctuary in order to extrapolate the total number of agarics species and the number of fruit bodies in each compartment as well as in the whole sanctuary (Table 1 & 2). Important characters require d for identification of gilled mushrooms, such as habit, habitat, substratum, odour, colour and size of the pileus, stipe and volva, presence or absence of veil were noted from the fresh material in the field and photographed in its natural habitat. Photographs of mushrooms collected from the sanctuary, is given in the Images 1–138 (Table 1). The agarics fruit bodies were dried in a hot air oven at 40–50 0C and stored in air-tight plastic containers with some naphthalene balls and samples of the same species were also preserved in FAA (formalin acetic acid) for further microscopic studies. Identification of the specimens was carried out by standard microscopic methods and also taking various morphological and anatomical features into account (Smith 1963; Ainsworth et al. 1973; Miller 1977; Natarajan 1978; Smith et al. 1979; Afyon et al. 2005). Besides these identification keys, some authentic websites were accessed like www.mushroomobserver.org (accessed on 03 January 2015), www.mushroomexpert.com (accessed on 05 January 2015), www.rogersmushrooms.com (accessed on 06 January 2015) in order to identify the collected gilled mushrooms. After proper identification, the current names of the identified mushrooms and their taxonomic details were accessed from the website: www.mycobank.org (accessed on 07 January 2015).

In order to compare the diversity of agarics among the five compartments of the HGWLS, Shannon-Weiner diversity Index H_ (Shannon & Weaver 1963) and Simpson’s Diversity Index (D) (Simpson 1949) were used.

Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index (H_) = - (Pi ×ln Pi)

Where, ‘ith’ species = one of all the enumerated species,

Pi = Ni/N (Proportion of the ith or each species in the sample), where Ni=is individual number of the ith or each species, N=is individual number of all species, lnPi = natural logarithm of this proportion.

ni(ni–1)

 

 

Simpson’s Diversity Index (D) = 1 – ∑ –––––––

N(N–1)

Where, ni= Individual number of the ith or each species.

Margalef’s Richness Index (R) = S–1/InN (Magurran 1988; Margalef 2008).

Where, S is the total number of species in each sample, lnN = natural logarithm of N

This research method used by a few scholars

Similarity Index was calculated using Sorensen’s formula (1948).

S/=2C/ (A+B) Where, S/ = Degree of similarity, A and B = No. of species at two different sites, C= No. of species common to both the sites.

Results and Discussion

There were 138 species of agarics enumerated in the whole wildlife sanctuary (Table 1 & Images 1–138) belonging to 48 genera, 23 families and five orders of the class Agaricomycetes. The order Agaricales was found with the highest number of species (113), followed by Russulales (14), Polyporales (5), Cantharellales (4) and Boletales (2). The family Agaricaceaewas was found with the highest number of species (27), followed by Tricholomataceae (15), Russulaceae (14), Marasmiacaeaee (11) Lyophyllaceae (9), Psathyrellaceae (7), Omphalotaceae (6), Strophariaceae (6), Mycenaceae (5), Amanitaceae, Cantharellaceae, Cortinariaceae, Polyporaceae (4 each), Bolbitiaceae, Entolomataceae, Physalacriaceae, Pluteaceae (3 each), Hydnangiaceae, Paxillaceae, Pleurotaceae, Shizophyllaceae (2 each), Inocybaceae and Sparassidaceae (1 each). The species Coprinellus disseminatesand Megacollybia rodmani have shown the maximum density (8.26) and the minimum density (0.05) respectively in the study site. A total of 24 species (Table 1) like Mycena leaiana, Armillaria sp., Collybia cirrhata, Marasmius curreyi, Gymnopus confluens, Collybia chrysoropha, Termitomyces albuminosus, Volvariella volvacea, Gymnopilus dilepis, Leucocoprinus medioflavus, Hymenagaricus sp.-2, Lepiota clypeolaria, Gymnopus impudicus, Marasmiellus candidus, Hygrocybe lanecovensis, Tricholoma terreum, Hebeloma sp., Hygrocybe miniata, Marasmius anomalus, Panaeolus olivaceus, Conocybe sordescens, Tubaria furfuracea, Lepiota erythrosticta, Gymnopilus aeruginosus with maximum frequency percentage (11.9) were found more frequently, whereas Megacollybia rodmani with the minimum frequency percentage (2.38) was found only in some quadrates of the sanctuary.

The abundant species were Termitomyces medius (91.67) and Coprinellus disseminatus (86.75) and less abundant species like Psilocybe wayanadensis (1.00), Lepiota sp. (1.00), Volvariella murinella (1.33), Lactarius resimus (1.33), Lactarius argillaceifolius var. megacarpus (1.5), Macrolepiota sp. (1.5), Marasmiellus sp.-1 (1.67), Inocybe petchii (1.67) and Chlorophyllum molybdites (1.67) were found in the study (Table 1).

The compartment wise decreasing order for species number (S) was 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 1, whereas numbers of fruit bodies (N) was 2 > 3 > 4 >1 > 5 (Table 2 & Fig. 2). The species richness index (R), was in the following trend: 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 1, while Shannon diversity index (H) 2 > 3 ≥ 4 > 5 ≥ 1 and Simpson diversity index (D)2> 3 ≥ 4 > 5 ≥ 1 respectively (Table 2, Fig. 2). The species number, number of fruit bodies, species richness index, Shannon diversity index and Simpson diversity index were maximum in compartment 2 due to lack of anthropogenic pressure, close canopy density, thick litter deposition and decomposition, sufficient soil moisture and rich organic matter. Mason & Last (1986) suggested that the fruit bodies’ formation of agarics would be enhanced by litter accumulation and decomposition and extracellular microbial enzymes (Vogt et al. 1983). Li et al. (2012) also found higher value of diversity indices in such type of habitats. Swapna et al. (2008) also found quite low diversity index of macrofungi in the moist deciduous forests in comparison to semi evergreen forests of Karnataka. In compartment 1 and 5 the value of diversity indices were minimum, this may be due to the position of these compartments, which are located on the roadside and have frequent human and cattle interferences. Compartment 5 is located towards human habitation (Fig. 1) where interference caused by illegal felling, grazing and browsing is very frequent.

Compartment 2 was considered as a representative compartment of the whole HGWLS because all the agarics species found in the sanctuary were present in this compartment. Therefore, similarity index of the other four compartments was compared with it (Table 3). Compartments 2 & 3 have shown the closest similarity (0.89) and compartment 2 & 1 have shown the minimum similarity (0.72) due to differences and similarities of vegetation composition, canopy density, anthropogenic pressure, habitat fragmentation, litter deposition and decomposition on the forest floor, soil moisture and compartment size.

 

 

 

Conclusion

Agaric mushrooms like Psilocybe wayanadensis, Lepiota sp., Volvariella murinella, Lactarius resimus, Lactarius argillaceifolius var. megacarpus, Inocybe petchii and Chlorophyllum molybdites are very rare and less abundant in the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Jorhat, Assam. Therefore, proper in situ and ex situ conservation is required for these agarics. Most of the species of agarics especially, Termitomyces, Russula and Pleurotus (oyster mushrooms) are edible. It is necessary to conduct more extensive surveys in other protected areas like reserved forests, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks of Assam in order to explore more macrofungi that will be helpful to make updated checklists of the fungi present in the state.

 

 

 

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